Rescuing the city from motorbikes with bicycles

It was 21 years ago that a group of worried doctors and other professionals first raised the alarm about motorcycles flooding the market. Data today backs their prescient warning - the city of Pune has one of the highest numbers of two-wheelers on its roads. Every inch of available space is being taken over by bikers looking for parking.
"We saw this coming; the erosion of the city's famous cycling culture and streets being taken over by motorbikes. It was an absolutely disconcerting thought at the time. So a few of us decided to do something about it. This is how the Pune Cycle Pratishthan (PCP) was born," Nandkumar Bhatewara, the secretary of PCP, said.

But the only way to save the city from the resulting pollution and congestion was to increase awareness and make the viability of bicycles more visible. The PCP also decided to lead by example.

The organisers of the group, many of them avid cyclists themselves, then started bicycle rallies at certain locations in the city on the first Sunday of every month, for about an hour early in the morning. The tradition continued for 21 years. Their most recently rally started near Dhayari, along Sinhagad Road, and made its way to the Ramanbaug school, through the congested Dattawadi and Navi Peth.

Over the years, the organisers have been trying their best to highlight the environmental and economic benefits of cycling - no emissions, savings on fuel - as well as its health benefits. The science has already backed the bike. Cycling improves well-being; an hour of it daily, experts say, can even help people stave off depression. Cycling can also boost quality of sleep. This is particularly important because a study in 2015 showed that a whopping 93% of Indians were sleep deprived.

Cycles can even improve interactions within communities. Joining a riding club over the weekends can make you part of a group involved in a healthy activity. It's considerably better than just sitting at home in front of the television.

But community improvement aside, this humble invention has the potential to save the planet.

According to Peter Walker, author of How Cycling Can Save the World, one of the most comprehensive surveys on cyclists tracked 30,000 Danes over the course of 15 years. The researchers revealed later that cycling to the workplace decreased "risk of mortality within that timeframe by nearly 40%".

"When we started, about 20 to 30 people used to come to our rallies each month, mainly for leisure or exercise. These days, a considerably larger number of people turn up, because of increasing awareness and the return of cycling to various parts of the city. The activity is quite stabilised these days," said Shirish Patwardhan, a doctor. Patwardhan is also the vice-president of PCP. He added that he even prescribes cycling as an exercise to his patients.

But Patwardhan also leads by example in this regard. "I generally do not use motorised vehicles to get to my workplace. I make it a point to ride my bicycle to my practice," he said.

Once a year, the PCP even teams up with other NGOs in the city to organise longer-route rallies, some of which have been in excess of a 1,000 kilometres. All of them have a theme that they adhere to, depending on the NGO they have teamed up with.

"Those rallies generally have charitable purposes, or they advocate certain causes," Bhatewara said.